Every so often I'm given a little photographic archaeology project, films that have been left in cameras or draws, for over 60 years in some cases!
The film I've been given this month is a roll of 120 Ilford FP4.
The film is still in production as FP4+ but this roll probably comes from the early production 1970-79 from the packaging.
What developer to use always inportant with old films and I favour Rodinal or HC110 as they give lower base fog which tends to be worse with films that have been stored for many years.
I processed this film in Rodinal 1:50 (10ml concentrate in 500ml water) for 15 mins with agitation of one inversion per min.
The film had about five 2¼ square images, two of which were of a boys hockey team at the local park the rest of someones back garden.
Looking at the hair, clothes and the fashion I'd guess these were taken between 1974-76 which means they have been sitting waiting for processing for 35 years.
The camera was probably a folding type as the images were left to right along the film.
I'm guessing the camera owner was probably the guy lying down in the second shot.
I wonder why people leave these undeveloped?
© Photo Utopia 2010
